A tourism dollar is very carbon intensive

Most people are not aware that tourism is carbon intensive; for many of us, instinct suggests that manufacturing will produce more CO2 per dollar than many other activities. 

This infographic compares emissions per dollar spent across tourism, the service sector and the overall economy.

The results are:

  • tourism (1.02 kg of CO2-e/ US$)
  • service sector (0.24 kg of CO2-e / US$) 
  • global economy average (0.77 kg of CO2-e / US$).

This shows that tourism is very carbon intensive per dollar spent, meaning that each tourism dollar has much more carbon impact than the same spend elsewhere.

Use of this infographic

This infographic is intended for illustrative and informational purposes. Copyright 2024 tourismemissions.org. All rights reserved.

When using these infographics, please include the following source acknowledgement: Source: tourismemissions.org

Readers should download the full published paper for detailed research results, methodology, more detail around data sources and other relevant research parameters. 

You can download the paper here.